Audra's Nursery

It feels funny for me to call Audra's room a "nursery" now that she's over a year old.  But I guess technically, it's a space for a "baby" and has all the things a nursery usually has.  My goal here is to show you what it looks like (b/c a lot of you relatives reading haven't seen it & may like to) but also, to explain why some things are the way they are so any of you reading mommies-to-be can get ideas for your future nurseries.  :)  You should know that we live in military housing, and won't be here for very long.  We technically are allowed to paint the walls, but we'd have to repaint them white before we leave.  Not really wanting to go through all of that, I had a tough job of bringing color into her room without paint.  While I still think that paint would have added a LOT, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  So here it is! :)

THE CRIB:
The fleece around the rails is so that she won't chew on the wood.  I made these in an afternoon quite easily.  And I'm not even that crafty!  (I read this tutorial, but actually ended up not following the directions as I made it since it was so easy to figure out on the fly.)

The crib skirt is made up of 3 separate panels (two for the sides, one for the front).  Each panel has ribbon at the top that ties onto the bed.  I can tie it in different places depending on how high or low I have her mattress.  This way we can use it whether her bed is on the highest or lowest setting.

Besides adding a splash of brightness, the yellow blanket (in the picture below) serves a purpose:  it prevents her from feeling the coolness of the sheet when I lay her in bed after rocking her.  It took a while for me to figure out this little tip, but it really works.  However, I feel like it makes her really warm when she sleeps (she would wake up drenched in sweat), so every now and then I start thinking we don't need it anymore and I take it off.  We go weeks of doing fine without it, then at some point I feel like I need to put it back on again.  It's just one of those back and forth things.

Audra tends to sleep near the "head" of her crib and rarely gets close to the foot.  We found this a perfect place to stash a toy or two for her to play with when she wakes up.  It started with just a book or two, then we started adding other toys that she loves.  Right now you see:  1) a book her Lolli & Pop recorded for her, 2) a Buckley Boo monkey [she LOVES trying to do the buckles!], 3) a puppy (she is majorly obsessed with puppies these days), 4) a doll that was my mom's & then mine 5) another teeny little puppy (it's a finger puppet), and 6) in front of the book, a mini Taggie bear blanket.  These things have kept her busy for over an hour on multiple occasions.  And over an hour more of sleep in the mornings = happy mama! :D  She will wake up, fuss for just over a minute, then spot her toys and get to playing. 

Another thing that keeps her busy, that we actually didn't even anticipate: the light switch.

After arranging & re-arranging her room, this was really the only way that fit everything and felt right.  Her crib happens to be right under the light switch.  She likes to flip it on and off.  Which I usually don't mind... unless it's in the middle of the night and I'm trying to get her to stay laying down and go to sleep.  For the most part, though, it's fun for her to play with.

THE CORNER:

• We used to have her swing in this corner, but we no longer use it.  
• That little bouncy chair is part of her swing, and we left it out because she likes to crawl in it & do the buckles.  
• The little piano is part of her tummy time mat.  This will be going out in the living room again before too long for baby brother!  
• We use the lamp a lot at night.  She's only tried to pull it down a few times, but the piano and the crib have both stopped it.  I have plans to attach some fishing line toward the top & anchor it to the wall somehow, but it hasn't happened yet.

THE BOOKSHELF:

• I originally arranged the solid fabric cubes 1 in each corner, with the heart one in the middle.  Then I realized I didn't want her pulling down some of the non-board books, so I put those up higher.  That strategy worked for quite a while.  She's bigger now & can reach all the books, but she's not quite as destructive as she could be.   
• The iPod up top is just an iPod touch, an older one we had laying around.  It has all of her music and also her white noise that we play during naps and at night.  We love the iPod setup; we just put it on continual repeat and the white noise plays all night. 
• The trash can used to live on the floor, until she started playing in it.  Now it lives next to the iPod.  I don't believe getting a taller trash can would help any since she tries to play in her diaper pail that lives downstairs.  I have one of those Febreeze stick and refresh pods in the lid.  The Febreeze scent actually ran out & I stuck one of the Bath & Body scent pods in there.  I love this combo!

 THE ROCKING CHAIR:
I recently read an article that said a rocking chair was one of the least-used items that parents think they need before a baby arrives.  I couldn't DISAGREE more!  This is BY FAR the most used seat in our house.  We use it at night, before naps, to read books, to cuddle, and when I nursed I used it then as well.  We were lucky enough to have parents to buy us a nice, big, comfy chair and if you get that chance I say go for it!  Ours is big enough for me to curl my legs up and still sit comfortably.  (Well, before being pregnant I was comfortable, these days... not so much.)

And of course, these essentials live next to the chair:  a Boppy (not used much anymore) and slippers (for those nights when you rock so long your feet get cold).

THE DRESSER:
This dresser was mine from middle school (yes, you read that right), so it's definitely seen better days.  Honestly, though, when we were trying to decide on what to buy Audra, it just made sense to give her my old dresser and get ourselves something new.  After all, we knew she would give this dresser a run for its money and we would be taking care of our new one.  But it works.  It has just enough room for her changing pad, a basket of changing necessities and also some little containers for her headbands.  

And above the dresser:

The back wall has her closet, which (obviously) houses her clothing, shoes, laundry & some bigger stuffed animals.  The clock is the same one I used in my classroom when I taught.

Here's a pano view of the whole thing:

 And a few more of my cuties:

This is what this area most often looks like:

Just to keep you up to date, we actually moved the crib into baby boy's room and set up a toddler bed for Audra.  I did a lot of research and found one that had both front rails included.  We didn't actually need her to move to a toddler bed, since she was doing just great in her crib.  But we wanted her to get used to her new bed well before baby boy arrived so it wouldn't be so much "new" at one time.  We really like that it feels pretty much the same as her crib to her.  We used her same mattress, her bumper still fit in, and she still has rails all the way around (which are necessary because she likes to sleep with her body right against the edge).  I was really happy to still be able to make her crib skirt work, too!  We really love the way it turned out!  Here's the link, if you're interested in getting something similar.  :)

We started really getting down to business in baby boy's room today, and I can't WAIT to show you how it turns out.  It's going to be perfectly, boyishly colorful.  :D  As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to comment or email or message me.  Hope you all are well!